Prior to 2005, the catheterization lab at Mercy Des Moines (IA)–Mercy Heart Hospital (MDM) had a team responsible for manual inventory of 2,200 medical items per day. This task was not only time-consuming, but it also put patients at high risk of coming in contact with an expired medical item...
Briefings on Accreditation & Quality - Volume 21, Issue 9
The Joint Commission took a giant step forward in 2009 when it began to include the D icon next to the elements of performance (EP) that require documentation. This ended the long debate over whether a particular EP was required to have documentation support. However, the new icon fails to...
I was always certain that my career in patient safety would be in the delivery sector, in health systems, hospitals, or clinics—settings in which clinicians and patients interact. Based on time spent as a frontline staff member and later as a leader in patient safety, I was sure that this was...
A new report released by The Leapfrog Group shows that computer physician order entry (CPOE) systems can potentially miss half of routine medication orders and one-third of potentially fatal medication orders.
The report is based on a study of 214 hospitals that tested their CPOE...
The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare has announced it will release a tool specifically targeting one of healthcare’s most persistent challenges–hand hygiene–in September.
Thank you to all members who participated in our benchmark survey on restraints use. Results will be available on the AHAP website later this week, at www.accreditationprofessional.org.
The Joint Commission announced this week its most challenging requirements list for the first half of 2010. The list for hospitals is dominated, as it has in the past, with standards dealing with fire safety requirements, though the most challenging requirement deals with medical records–another...
